


Shards

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Gen, shards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is based on a word from the One Word at a Time series by the amazing and generous Aramirandme81, who's still kindly giving me challenges. </p>
<p>The word was Shards, the line was; Anders has a collection of nearly microscopic scars surrounding one eye. He’d told Mike it was from a fight and got house arrest for a week. He never told him the fight was with Val nor how close some of the shards from the glass she’d smashed into his face had come to blinding him. </p>
<p>And the idea was a bit of angst or Hurt/Comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/gifts).



> Big thanks to Aramiandme81, hope this is what you wanted, or close enough... cause at the moment it is what you get.... ;)

Shards

 

“Hold on Anders, you got something at your eye,” Dawn could just see a speck of something as the light caught it just right, and approaches so that she stands just in front of him. Anders looks confused, but then removes his hands from the keyboard of his laptop and turns to face her.

 

“Close your eye a moment,” Dawn urges and he obeys only to have her smile good naturally. “No, the other eye,” she corrects and he closes that too. In truth, he prefers to keep them both closed when she’s that close.

 

“There, let me see, tilt your head up a little,” she puts a finger under his chin to angle his head upwards and he allows her, then feels the faintest tickle of her fingertip against his skin. “No wait, there’s nothing there,” she frowns. “I’m sorry, it really looked like something. Maybe it’s a scar or something.”

 

“Yeah,” he nods. “Thanks anyway.”

  
Dawn gives him a sheepish look and heads back to her own desk.

 

Anders knows he was never the easiest teenager to handle. He was unhappy with his lot in life. Things were crappy in so many ways. The way their dad would hit their mum, how their mum wasn’t the only one he would hit.

 

Not even being moved up one year for being smart and good in school was something he could fully enjoy becuase of the downsides. Being bullied becuase he knew more than those who did not care to know anything at all. Constantly being younger and much, much smaller than everyone else. He’d get plowed down if he tried out for the rugby team, if he was even allowed to try.

 

Mike tried to teach him a few tricks so that he could join in the games at lunch break but it didn’t work. They’d gang up on him becuase apparently about seven against one meant they were all tough and brave while he was a coward for daring to face them.

 

He quickly gave up that idea, not really that he was a coward but he had a healthy respect for getting hurt.

 

He knew a lot more about girls than the others in his class, he was younger, but the first one to really notice them. Also the first one to know what to do after he had noticed them.

 

Unfortunately that also meant he was the first one to find out something else that was quite unpleasant, and hadn’t that been a fun night. Ty had decided enough was enough and fetched Mike who might have figured out what the problem was, but had not been happy about it. Valerie had been offended and outraged and had also decided to ‘mention’ it to a couple of colleges at school. she claimed it had been with the best of intention since it was a problem that could affect many unfortunate students. She didn’t think it was unfortunate for him though. He knew she thought it served him right. When Valerie was a student she hadn’t been much better than he was, but then she did not teach at the school where she had been a student so the others did not know that.

 

She made sure they knew about Anders though.

 

He fought with her constantly becuase they simply could not get along. A few times he caught her looking at him in a weird way, and once when she had had just a tad too much to drink she cornered him under the mistletoe but he wasn’t sure if she really wanted him or what it was about. It scared him though, becuase he was still inexperienced when it came to sex, he wasn’t a virgin, but he was not really confident in it yet at that point.

 

He certainly wasn’t ready to take on his brother’s wife. The woman who played at being mum to Ty and Axl. Instead he argued with her and fought with her. It was worse when Mike wasn’t at home becuase Valerie was worse then. It was like she didn’t feel the need to play the good wife when Mike wasn’t at home. Anders knew she wanted a baby, becuase she wanted a child that was her own but he was concerned that if she had one she might stop caring about Axl and Ty. He didn’t want that to happen, but Mike did not understand. He simply nodded and agreed to whatever she wanted. Perhaps she would be capable of loving Axl, Ty and her own baby, but Anders wasn’t sure he was willing to take the risk. He had been the unwanted one, the unloved one all his life and he was not willing to put Ty and Axl through it.

 

He didn’t care if she had found some herbal hormone thing that was supposed to help her get pregnant. He did not care if it made her moody and unpredictable.

 

He cared about Ty and Axl and he figured that should be the most important thing to her too. The kids she already had should come before any kid she might or might not have.

 

Valerie clearly did not share his point of view.

 

He remembered that he had been in something of a bad mood, because Valerie had told his English teacher he was not studying. He was not, because he had his paper route to earn some extra money. Also, it was all easy and he did not really need to. Sure, he made one or two mistakes due to it, but his grade more than averaged the others.

 

Valerie though had suggested that since he did not study, he was not applying himself and now his teacher was on his case.

 

She had been in a foul mood due to the latest herb she was taking. They cost a fortune and as far as he could tell they were completely ineffective so he wasn’t very fond of it. Being told he could not go on the school trip, again, in spite of it being and educational trip to a museum because it cost too much was enough to set him off.   
  
Axl had been on a couple with the motivation he was too young to understand why he could not. Ty had been on two with Valerie claiming they had spent more money on Anders. Though much of that was medical bills which made Anders demand to know if he could go on the next school trip if he just stayed home when he got pneumonia.

  
Mike was not happy about that and told him to go cool off.

 

Sometimes Anders could sympathise with his brother, knowing it couldn’t be easy to find himself between Valerie and three kids, and Mike was a pushover when it came to Val. At the same time he was pissed that Mike wouldn’t simply grow a pair of balls and stand up to Valerie which made him want to do it, and it usually did not work out very well.

 

He could hardly remember what the fight had been about, it could have been anything. Probably something very stupid. She often objected to him spending nights with the one friend he had, but he needed to get out of the house every now and again. Get to spend time in a normal family, being allowed to play a videogame, or go to the movies without having her count pennies about it.

 

She constantly nagged him to chip in with money from his paper route, claiming he was old enough to do so. Anders figured that since he had his paper route they did not give him any allowance and that was to chip in.

 

It could have been that, or it could have been that she thought he was shirking on the chores. He couldn’t remember. They had argued though, no one else was home so there was no reason to keep it quiet.

 

The herbal junk she was on made her unpredictable and Anders was too mad at her to care. She had been emptying the dishwasher and started slamming the plates and bowls down on the countertop. She grabbed a wineglass, shouting at him and putting it down so hard the stem broke.

 

“Now look here what you did, you worthless idiot!” she snapped furiously, waving the broken glass in his face.

 

“You’re not my mum, and you’re not Ty’s or Axl’s mum. You’re just someone Mike is fucking cause your old boyfriend is a vegetable!” Anders shot back.

 

He never had a chance to react at all, Valerie’s hand shot forward, smashing the already broken glass into his face.

  
Valerie cried out as the glass broke, a few slivers cutting into her palm.

 

Anders was too shocked to even realize what had happened. He did not even register the pain at first. He was just suddenly aware of warm red blood streaming down his face and a burning pain near his eye.

 

He stumbled back, the red filling his vision with black crowding in at the edges as he struggled to breath. He couldn’t stand blood, it made him feel sick, and there was so much of it.

 

“Oh God, Anders?” Valerie’s voice was weak and shaky and barely registered. She pressed something to his face, talking to him but he was not listening as she led him out.

  
He was sick, nauseous and the fear of throwing up nearly made him panic. He couldn’t throw up, so he gulped down air desperately until he was vaguely aware that he was about to faint.

 

He only had hazy impressions for memories for a while there, nothing he could really be sure off, but when things cleared Valerie was there in front of him, a cold cloth pressed to his face.

 

“Anders, this is important, are you listening to me?” she demanded quietly.

 

“What happened?” he mumbled, not really sure of where he was.

 

“Were at the hospital Anders, but you need to listen to me. If you tell them what happened, they’ll take Ty and Axl away. They’ll be in foster care until they’re legal adults. Separated and never seeing each other or Mike again, do you want to do that to them.”

 

“No,” he mumbled, his voice thick.

 

“Tell them you got into a fight then, tell them that Anders. I’ll say you came home like this, and Axl and Ty will still have a home. Do you understand?” she demanded and he nodded.

 

“Good, remember if you don’t, whatever happens to Ty and Axl will be your fault,” she stated.

 

Anders choked back a sob, then a nurse came to lead him away.

 

Mike has been working late, as he always seems to be doing though he looks forward to getting home just so he can be with the kids. He can tell that something is wrong right away though. Axl runs up to him as soon as he gets through the door, throwing his arms around him.

 

“Hey buddy, what’s up,” ignoring the fact that he’s getting too big, Mike lifts him up.

 

“Anders is sick and I’m hungry,” Axl declares.

 

“Something happened with Anders today, but he won’t really tell us what,” Ty explains, following after Axl. “Val’s making dinner but it’s gonna take a long time.”

 

“Guess I’d better try to sort out Anders then,” Mike decides with a tired sigh. “He in your room?”

 

Ty shakes his head, “couch.”

 

“Okay,” putting Axl down Mike heads to the lounge, cursing when he sees the bandage covering most of Anders face on one side. “What the fuck did you do this time?” he demands. The gauze is taped over his eye, making him worry.

 

“Got into a fight,” Anders mumbles. He’s very careful with what he says. Just like he was with the nurse and doctor. He refused to tell them exactly what happened. He couldn’t risk Ty and Axl. He had just told them he had got into a fight, and that he didn’t remember who hit him.

 

“A fight?” Mike finds it hard to believe. “How bad is it?” he wants to know. He has to know that Anders is going to be okay, becuase there are tiny blood stains showing through the bandage.

 

“It’s okay, had some cuts, not even stitches,” Anders answers sluggishly. “Gave me some shit though, and it’s hard to think Mike. My head is all funny.”

 

“Yeah, I can imagine,” he pushes Anders hair back, cursing again when he can see tiny cuts that are not covered by bandage. “I bet they had to dope you up to handle this mess.”

 

“Yeah,” Anders confirms.

 

“What was the fight about?” Mike asks and Anders swallows.

 

“Don’t remember,” he mumbles.

 

“I find that hard to believe,” looking up Mike can see Axl and gestures for him to go to the kitchen.

 

“I don’t,” Anders declares, lower lip sticking out. “I was pissed and I was yelling, and I don’t even remember what happened. It was just a fight and I got something smashed in my face, and it fucking hurt. There was so much blood,” he finishes weakly.

 

“And I bet that finished you off,” Mike sighs, rocking back on his heels. “Did Val take you to the doctor?”

 

Anders nods, closing his good eye. He still felt sick when he thought about what the doctor had done, and said. Washing tiny fragments of glass out of his eye while he just about screamed from the pain because whatever it was they gave him it muddled up his thinking but did little for the pain. Then he had told him how lucky he was that he didn’t lose the eye. Several of the cuts had ‘almost’ done just that. The man was amazed when he declared there should be no permanent damage, but he was not sympathetic after Anders told him it was a fight.

 

He also told Valerie they’d have to clean the cuts out several times every day, and use a salve on his eyelids to counter infection. They also gave him one day off school for it, but no more, and going to school with his face covered in bandages was something he had learned to hate. They would ask too, and he’d have to lie again. He would have to let them mock him because he couldn’t tell them the truth. He could not tell anyone the truth.

 

“Yeah, well, you know how I feel about fighting, especially when you’re shit at it,” Mike decided. “I’ll excuse it if you’re trying to help your brothers, but it does not sound like you had a good reason now, did you?”

 

Anders shook his head, he couldn’t say it had been a good reason.

 

“Then you got house arrest for a week, that’s even less than the usual punishment,” Mike decides. “I guess I feel just a little sorry for you.”

 

Anders looks up, seeing Valerie hoovering and listening. He grits his teeth, the least she could do was tell Mike not to ground him. He’s got a sleepover with his friend planned. The one thing he thought he still had to look forward to. “That’s not fair,” he mumbles. He looks at Valerie, hoping she’ll at least tell Mike to reduce the punishment.

 

Instead she just turns around and Anders nearly wants to cry. He can’t tell Mike the truth, but he wishes he could because the way Mike looks at him now, disappointed, hurts as much as the injury.

 

The cuts healed, fairly well but now Anders has a collection of nearly microscopic scars surrounding one eye. He’d told Mike it was from a fight and got house arrest for a week. He never told him the fight was with Val nor how close some of the shards from the glass she’d smashed into his face had come to blinding him.

 

Now when Dawn looks at him he nearly tells her the truth.

  
The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry, and asks that everyone read One Word at a Time by Aramirandme81


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